THE news had reached us that Bug-Jargal had left Morne-Rouge, and was
moving through the mountains to effect a junction with the troops of
Biassou. The Governor could not conceal his delight. “We have them,”
cried he, rubbing his hands. “They are in our power.”
By the next morning the colonial forces had marched some four miles to
the front of Cap. At our approach the insurgents hastily retired from
the positions which they had occupied at Port-Mayat and Fort Galifet,
and in which they had planted siege guns which they had captured in one
of the batteries on the coast. The Governor was triumphant, and by his
orders we continued our advance. As we passed through the arid plains
and the ruined plantations, many a one cast an eager glance in search of
the spot which was once his home, but in too many cases the foot of the
destroyer had left no traces behind. Sometimes our march was interrupted
by the conflagration having spread from the lands under cultivation, to
the virgin forests.
In these regions, where the land is untilled and the vegetation
abundant, the burning of a forest is accompanied with many strange
phenomena. Far off, long before the eye can catch the cause, a sound is
heard like the rush of a cataract over opposing rocks, the trunks of the
trees flame out with a sudden crash, the branches crackle, and the roots
beneath the soil all contribute to the extraordinary uproar. The lakes
and the marshes in the interior of the forests boil with the heat. The
hoarse roar of the coming flame stills the air, causing a dull sound,
sometimes increasing and sometimes diminishing in intensity as the
conflagration sweeps on or recedes. Occasionally a glimpse can be caught
of a clump of trees surrounded by a belt of fire, but as yet untouched
by the flames; then a narrow streak of fire curls round the stems, and
in another instant the whole becomes one mass of gold-coloured fire;
then up rises the column of smoke driven here and there by the breeze.
It takes a thousand fantastic forms, spreads itself out, diminishes in
an instant; at one moment it is gone, in another it returns with greater
density; then all becomes a thick black cloud, with a fringe of sparks,
a terrible sound is heard, the sparks disappear, and the smoke ascends,
disappearing at last in a mass of red ashes, which sink down slowly upon
the blackened ground.